Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: sumpnz on September 19, 2019, 08:49:55 PM
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We're putting up field fencing and to construct the H braces I need a good cordless drill. What do you all recommend? Been a long time since I've bought decent cordless tools so I'm not up on the latest technology, especially since it seems like the battery is the most important part.
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Milwaukee. I like their M12 series (12 volt), although most people probably go for the M18s.
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I'm rather fond of the Dewalt 20V stuff. Spring for a brushless model, if you can afford it.
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I'm rather fond of the Dewalt 20V stuff. Spring for a brushless model, if you can afford it.
I'll 2nd that recommendation. The version I bought came with 2 batteries.
It has enough torque to cause a severe wrist strain or worse if it catches and twists on you.
Battery life has been more than adequate for anything I've needed it for.
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Best- Milwaukee.
Performance per dollar- Ryobi. I picked up their 18v hammer drill a while back with 2 10cell batteries for $100 and it's got way more power than the DeWalt we have at work.
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Ikea all the way.
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I have a Ryobi 18 volt tool kit that I got at Home Depot. The drill works very well.
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I'm rather fond of the Dewalt 20V stuff. Spring for a brushless model, if you can afford it.
Careful of the Dewalt stuff.
That 20v battery is "Flex Volt" technology. This means that each cell is hybrid-wired and depending on the pins used by the tool, can be connected in parallel for high amperage on a 20v tool, or in series for high voltage on a 60v tool. The drawback to this is that the charger will charge each cell individually. You wind up with variations in charge voltage from cell to cell, and when connected in parallel to a tool, the cells try to level-off each other, which results in degraded lifespan of all cells.
One of my newest guilty pleasures is a tool review channel called AvE on Youtube. I've been shopping for a cordless air compressor and this guy had an amazing tear-down review of the DeWalt offering, and I just went down his rabbit hole for tool teardowns for a bunch of stuff. I heartily recommend it for no BS, unsponsored truth about the quality of build of many lines of cordless tools (and other tools).
From his reviews, he tends to favor Milwaukee and Makita recently... but he's called some of their offerings rubbish recently, too.
https://www.youtube.com/user/arduinoversusevil
Keep your dick in a vise! :lol:
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I've got a dewalt, but the battery charger is seems to be funny. Could just be my electrical outlets.
I was so happy to get it and now I end up grabbing the cheapo corded drill instead of fussing with it. =|
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I have Milwaukee. It's OK. The first one gear stripped and stuck in low gear. The second one, the chuck kind of sucks. But it's ok.
I'm biased against DeWalt because their marketing is dishonest. They have the same batteries everyone else calls 18V, but they lie and call them 20V so people think they are better.
If you care about buying into a system, check what's available and what you care about. Milwaukee has a nice soldering iron and leaf blower, but DeWalt has an air compressor and lawnmower.
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I've been very happy with Dewalt's 20v brushless drills and impact drivers.
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Tractors are green and tools are yellow. I have a bunch of 20v DeWalt tools, never had any problems with them and long battery life.
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I have a Ryobi 18 volt tool kit that I got at Home Depot. The drill works very well.
I have the same, and can confirm it works well.
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One of my newest guilty pleasures is a tool review channel called AvE on Youtube. I've been shopping for a cordless air compressor and this guy had an amazing tear-down review of the DeWalt offering, and I just went down his rabbit hole for tool teardowns for a bunch of stuff. I heartily recommend it for no BS, unsponsored truth about the quality of build of many lines of cordless tools (and other tools).
Another vote for AvE. He calls it like he sees it. No pulled punches. His BOLTR series (Bored Of Lame Tool Reviews) are always informative and fun to watch. Guy sure knows his enginerding.
I'm a big fan of Makita. A little more, sure, but I look at their stuff as a lifetime purchase (plus, I'm an unrepentant tool whore).
Brad
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Bosch, but only when you find a good sale price on it.
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Bought a Bauer drill at Harbor Freight last year. The drill is pretty decent, but the batteries suck. I've had two die due to failed cells since I bought the drill. They are supposedly Samsung Li-Ion cells, but I really wonder if they are counterfeits. It was the same first cell in the pack the failed both times. I've got a couple of new cells waiting at home for me to try a repair on both packs.
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Bosch, but only when you find a good sale price on it.
Ditto. I have been very happy with mine.
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I have Milwaukee. It's OK. The first one gear stripped and stuck in low gear. The second one, the chuck kind of sucks. But it's ok.
I'm biased against DeWalt because their marketing is dishonest. They have the same batteries everyone else calls 18V, but they lie and call them 20V so people think they are better.
If you care about buying into a system, check what's available and what you care about. Milwaukee has a nice soldering iron and leaf blower, but DeWalt has an air compressor and lawnmower.
Big as my lawn is and as long as my driveway is there is no way I can tolerate battery lawn tools. And it's generally better to keep me away from soldering.
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We're going to probably get the postholes dug and set the posts this weekend. I'll likely buy the drill after I get back from dallas, so early October most likely. So, still time to influence my decision.
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We're going to probably get the postholes dug and set the posts this weekend. I'll likely buy the drill after I get back from dallas, so early October most likely. So, still time to influence my decision.
But right now you're leaning toward the Ikea?
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But right now you're leaning toward the Ikea?
Yes. Ikea post holes are so much easier as long as you can read the Swedish instructions.
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I have a Ryobi 18v drill from Home Depot - came in a kit with 2 batteries and a charger. It works well - I installed a bunch of decking in my attic with it.
At the time I bought it, I could have bought 2 complete Ryobi kits for the price of one Milwaukee cordless drill kit plus one extra battery.
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Bosch, but only when you find a good sale price on it.
I'm transitioning my Rigid 18v equipment as it breaks, to Bosch. So far I've been very happy with my drill, jig saw, band saw and 4 1/2" angle grinder.
(Says something about Rigid there...)
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I'm transitioning my Rigid 18v equipment as it breaks, to Bosch. So far I've been very happy with my drill, jig saw, band saw and 4 1/2" angle grinder.
(Says something about Rigid there...)
Bosch makes very good jigsaws! I couldn’t believe the difference when I replaced an old Crapsman jigsaw.
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I have gone through a half dozen or so old Makita's, a half dozen Hitachi's, a half dozen old dewalts, (all of them ni cad of various voltages) and now have a dozen or so dewalt 20 volt li ion. several impact drivers, several drills, and a couple oddball tools. The lithium ion batteries are great- they can be stored charged for a long time and not lose the charge. Never had a problem with any of them, they are in daily service. I keep them with dedicated bits and drills in them, so as to not have to change them. Have not had a battery pack go bad yet, which is a big change from ni-cad.
IMO, Any of the new lithium ion brand name tools are going to be OK- the competition in cordless tools is intense. I really doubt any normal use will show a big favorite- of course, I am coming from an era when Milwaukee's cordless drill had a cord, and a 12 volt belt mounted battery.....
I would put ergonomics first- does the tool fit your hand? And shop the sales- sometimes you can buy two tools, two battery packs and a charger for the cost of two spare batterys...crazy.
and the most important part- buy good driver bits, and lots of them, and long enough so your fingers don't take a beating.
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Bosch makes very good jigsaws! I couldn’t believe the difference when I replaced an old Crapsman jigsaw.
Agree.
I have a cheap old Skil jigsaw from Walmart - worked OK, but cuts weren't that precise and with the bendy plastic construction, I couldn't even get the blade and shoe perpendicular. I looked at Festool jigsaws but the price was :O.
The Mafell jigsaw price was :O :O
I tried a new DeWalt but the %$#!@ blade kept falling out. What a wretched POS.
So I bought a (gently) used older Bosch off Ebay - the blade is stabilized by a couple of fingers that come in from the sides, it cuts straight, doesn't vibrate much, and has lots of power. I'm happy with it.
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One of my newest guilty pleasures is a tool review channel called AvE on Youtube. I've been shopping for a cordless air compressor and this guy had an amazing tear-down review of the DeWalt offering, and I just went down his rabbit hole for tool teardowns for a bunch of stuff. I heartily recommend it for no BS, unsponsored truth about the quality of build of many lines of cordless tools (and other tools).
From his reviews, he tends to favor Milwaukee and Makita recently... but he's called some of their offerings rubbish recently, too.
https://www.youtube.com/user/arduinoversusevil
Keep your dick in a vise! :lol:
If you watch too much AVE, you will also start to use "chooch" as a verb in sentences, sometimes when talking to you're boss's boss. Fair warning.
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Nothing like 60's tech when all the new fangled stuff fails. My 18v battery to my Rigid crapped out and wouldn't take a charge, when I needed it today. So I drag out my Black and Decker corded drill that I bought in 1966 and got the job done.
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Got a Hitachi from Lowes few years ago. 18v I think. Works great.
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
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Video on who owns various tool manufacturers.
https://youtu.be/yGRVDRZbPkQ
The interesting part to me is that the 2 Independent makers (according to the video) are Hilti and Makita.
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I've got 2 Makita corded tools, a buffer that I bought last year, great tool, and a 4".angle grinder I bought in 1987.
The Makita 4" angle grinder is the standard by which I judge all corded power tools.
I have used and abused that thing for 32. Granted, it is not in daily industrial use but 32 years and counting is a damn good run.
The angle grinder has also taken more skin than any tool I've ever owned. It just doesn't care what it's grinding.
Loaned it to dad, told him to wear good leather gloves, he didn't, it took meat. Loaned it to my brother, told him to wear good leather gloves, he didn't, he still has the scar on the side of his hand.
I *expletive deleted*ing told 'em. Nobody ever listens to Larry.
=D
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Nobody ever listens to Larry.
=D
Oh, sorry. Did you say something?
Brad
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Oh, sorry. Did you say something?
Brad
Who, me? No. Why do you ask?
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I'm happy with the Milwaukee I bought four years ago, about $129. It gets the serious woodworking and other shop tasks, such as driving 3x1/4" lag bolts into 2 inches of oak.
Just to have a second drill upstairs and not have to run downstairs to my garage, and mostly to hang pictures in the wall, I got one from Harbor Freight, about $19. It's not nearly as good, has ni-cad batteries, and has a charger that has to be kept under 5 hours or it will burn up. The drill chuck is hard to keep tight. But for $19 it will drill holes in the wall.
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I have gone through a half dozen or so old Makita's, a half dozen Hitachi's, a half dozen old dewalts, (all of them ni cad of various voltages) and now have a dozen or so dewalt 20 volt li ion. several impact drivers, several drills, and a couple oddball tools. The lithium ion batteries are great- they can be stored charged for a long time and not lose the charge. Never had a problem with any of them, they are in daily service. I keep them with dedicated bits and drills in them, so as to not have to change them. Have not had a battery pack go bad yet, which is a big change from ni-cad.
IMO, Any of the new lithium ion brand name tools are going to be OK- the competition in cordless tools is intense. I really doubt any normal use will show a big favorite- of course, I am coming from an era when Milwaukee's cordless drill had a cord, and a 12 volt belt mounted battery.....
I would put ergonomics first- does the tool fit your hand? And shop the sales- sometimes you can buy two tools, two battery packs and a charger for the cost of two spare batterys...crazy.
and the most important part- buy good driver bits, and lots of them, and long enough so your fingers don't take a beating.
I find even the newer light weight LiOn drills tire out my wrist eventually. You're always fighting the torque the weight puts on your hand in two directions. A belt mounted battery to shave the weight off the drill might be something a manufacturer should look into. The small stick batteries that don't extend past the grip are nice for smaller drivers, but they don't last as long.
The 18650 battery certainly seems to be a pinnacle in energy density for discreet cells, but eventually some drill will come out with a flat-pack LiPoly brick, if they haven't already.
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Project Farm's impact driver test that popped up in today's YouTube subscription.
https://youtu.be/4jxZAKk_nSk
Brad
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Nothing like 60's tech when all the new fangled stuff fails. My 18v battery to my Rigid crapped out and wouldn't take a charge, when I needed it today. So I drag out my Black and Decker corded drill that I bought in 1966 and got the job done.
You must be my long lost brother. I'll bet you installed a Real Man's Jacob's Chuck on the Rigid and threw its new-fangled twist-tighten chuck as far into the pasture as you could, too.
Welcome back to the fambly.
Terry, 230RN
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I find even the newer light weight LiOn drills tire out my wrist eventually. You're always fighting the torque the weight puts on your hand in two directions. A belt mounted battery to shave the weight off the drill might be something a manufacturer should look into. The small stick batteries that don't extend past the grip are nice for smaller drivers, but they don't last as long.
The 18650 battery certainly seems to be a pinnacle in energy density for discreet cells, but eventually some drill will come out with a flat-pack LiPoly brick, if they haven't already.
Milwaukee makes a high capacity M12 battery that is still light. Their stuff works very well and tends to be very well thought out.
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Milwaukee makes a high capacity M12 battery that is still light. Their stuff works very well and tends to be very well thought out.
I have one of those. I like it better than their 18V because it's small and light but not too small
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I threw one of the batteries for my Hitachi on the charger last weekend and it seems that it's failing. Sigh.
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I recently replaced my old dewalt 14.4v with new 18v Milwaukee cordless. They have really built on the red lithium 18V with several ma/h batteries and over 200 different cordless tools and more being announce frequently according the email blasts I've been getting. I'm real happy with my 1/4" impact driver and drill combo. I couldn't justify the cost of stepping up to the FUEL pro line.
I'm banking on the 18v batteries and the Milwaukee line being around for a good long time.
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Thanks to some reasonably-priced multi-tool kits from Home Depot, I have gone over to the Ryobi 18 volt system. For my use, they work great. Someone who works for a living would probably want something more heavy-duty. The last two Ryobi cordless tools that I bought was a compact shop vac in the shape of a large toolbox, and a heavy-duty inflator. I am using both of them a surprising amount lately.
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OK, I've found replacement batteries that will fit my drill for under $30.
Need to keep that in mind if this battery is truly clapped out.
Earlier this year I helped Castle Key build the deck for his greenhouse and the next week his greenhouse.
It was VERY convenient having two identical drills and 4 identical batteries. We burned through a lot of electric with all of the screws we had to drive to put the whole schmear together.
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OK, I've found replacement batteries that will fit my drill for under $30.
They will work, but don't expect much from them. They are usually the cheapest chinese batteries available.
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The ones I'm looking at on Amazon have a couple hundred positive ratings, and from what I'm finding, they may be from the same manufacturers who made the OEM batters for Hitachi.